iM Global Partners is set to make its ETF debut by listing a managed futures ETF that clones the asset allocations of America’s top commodity trading advisor hedge funds.
The iM DBi Managed Futures Strategy ETF (DBMF) will use a proprietary quantitative model to get a good idea of “the current asset allocation of a selected pool of the largest commodity trading advisor hedge funds,” the prospectus says. It will then work to try and clone them, going entirely off the model.
Like almost every managed futures fund, DBMF will take long/short positions in derivatives, mostly futures.
The fund charges 0.85%.
Analysis – sure, why not?
Cloning the strategies of hedge funds is nothing new. AlphaClone has an ETF (ALFA) that uses the publicly disclosed asset allocations (and stock picks) from hedge funds to pick stocks. Like today’s listing, it also looks at historical returns to try and fill in the blanks left by quarterly disclosures.
How has it fared? Well, ALFA has underperformed SPY since its inception in 2012 and – in what is seldom a good sign – the fund changed indexes in 2017 after an extended period of underperformance. The fund has $22 million under management.
We’ll have to wait and see how today’s listing compares.
